


A Hundred Years and More

by sherwoodfox



Series: The Madman and the Worm [8]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Non-Binary Character, Established Relationship, Future Fic, Healing, Other, Post-Canon, Sick Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:22:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27360421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sherwoodfox/pseuds/sherwoodfox
Summary: Eighty-five years after the Promised Day, Envy is a weak thing (don’t they always end up as such?) with only a fragment of a Philosopher’s Stone to keep them going. But it doesn’t matter. Kimblee is there.
Relationships: Envy/Zolf J. Kimblee
Series: The Madman and the Worm [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1053362
Comments: 6
Kudos: 22





	A Hundred Years and More

Envy didn’t look human at all in the eerie blue light of the indoor swimming pool. The colours painted themselves too clearly onto that pale skin. It didn’t help that they were lying so still under the water- too heavy to float- eyes closed and lungs too still to release air bubbles. They looked like a drowned thing- or maybe a predator animal that lured in prey by pretending to be drowned.

Kimblee stood at the edge of the pool, watching them. It was a pretty sight, he had no reason to disturb it too quickly. And he knew Envy wasn’t really waiting for some unwitting victim, not like this- they liked being underwater for the silence. Something he could never enjoy.

Still, it didn’t take long for something to awaken them- some change in the atmosphere, maybe- and in a motion reminiscent of the new horror films they opened their eyes under the water, bringing still limbs back into motion to rise to the surface, though even when they breached it they made no obvious move to breathe. Now the green in their hair couldn’t be seen at all, and plastered to their skull it looked less like vines and more like seaweed. They didn’t approach the side of the pool where he stood, folding their arms instead like they felt a chill (because they likely did) and smirking to cover up that same feeling. He could see quite well the translucent quality their skin had taken on- the darkness beneath their eyes that shouldn’t have been there. Well, it wouldn’t be there for long.

“Welcome back,” Envy rasped, their voice much harsher than it used to have been. Still, the arrogant and catlike way they angled their head was the same, watching him with wide serpentine eyes. “Did you have a good time?”

Kimblee chuckled. He could hear the unpleasant notes in that otherwise pleasant greeting. Envy was always the same- even if a hundred years had passed since he had first kissed them in the desert, they were still the same. Unbearably, unreasonably, uncontrollably _jealous._

“Of course,” he said. “I went to a concert.”

Envy growled at that, a low and animal sound that filled the entire room, and Kimblee walked away from the edge of the pool to the bar beside it, which was empty at the moment of any servers. Envy watched him, unblinking and unmoving, save to turn their head. It was a good look on them, this, though Kimblee wasn’t going to let them know it- having given up a while ago on maintaining the illusion of clothing, the only darkness to cut across hard white muscle was from their hair. Hair which, if it were dry, would probably appear rather limp, even then.

“It must have been a nice concert,” they continued, undoubtedly referring to the blood splattered up the side of his suit, smeared on his cheek where he hadn’t bothered to wipe it away. He wouldn’t have minded, should they have come up and licked the blood off, but he didn’t think they would. It might be too difficult, by now, to even leave the pool.

“It was alright,” he replied. “I think I got my money’s worth.”

Envy only narrowed their eyes, and he supposed they must be envious of that, too. It had been a while since they had killed anything. It had been a while since that was within the realm of possibility. Envy was nearly dead, after all, the stone in their chest burned down to only a sliver of its original size. Time had done this, but so had a few ill-favoured events, and now they were so weak they could barely hold up their own weight, and couldn’t do so with any dignity. They certainly couldn’t change shape. Their skin was fragile, their gaze unfocused, sharp teeth liable to chip. It was a very attractive look, of course, to see the mighty beast- Destroyer of Civilizations, Great Serpent, Dragon of the Apocalypse- brought so low, but it wasn’t Kimblee’s favourite look.

“I’ve actually been saving up for this particular show a while,” he said, tattooed hands going through the process of making himself a martini at the bar. “It’s been a special investment. A particular project of mine.”

Kimblee could tell Envy didn’t understand what he was talking about anymore, bladelike eyebrows coming closer together on their forehead. But no, this hadn’t been a typical massacre, not what he usually did- this had been much more deliberate.

“I know you don’t like to study much,” he continued, and Envy made a motion with their jaw that suggested they would have bit him, if he’d been any closer. “But I still do. There are so many improvements to be made in science. Even the most basic of techniques can be refined.”

He took a sip of his drink and watched, admiring how Envy shifted, rubbing at their shoulders. Completely oblivious. The clueless suspicion in their eyes made him want to laugh.

“Your father wasn’t the best at everything,” he said, and finally Envy started to make their way over, dipping back into the water to swim towards the edge of the pool.

“No,” they said, voice a colour as black as ink. “After all, he’s dead.”

“Dead, and inefficient,” Kimblee said, leaving his drink and coming around from the bar to close the distance as Envy folded their arms on the side of the pool. “Sometimes, there are simpler ways to do things. You don’t always need so much raw material.”

He stopped before he was within grabbing distance and Envy frowned at him. They opened their mouth, probably to say something, and he interrupted them.

“What have you been doing, anyway, my dear? I’m sorry, but I forgot to ask.” He nearly did laugh, seeing Envy’s eyes widen with a special kind of rage, lips pulling back from their teeth. Too easy to tease.

“I’ve been fucking the elevator boy,” they snapped, clawing feebly at the concrete on the pool’s edge. “That’s what you get, for leaving me alone like this-”

“Yes, I’m sure,” Kimblee murmured, kneeling now before them. What a sirenesque picture this was- he couldn’t stop himself from getting closer. But they would never be able to drown him. He had much more sense when it came to the preservation of his own stone heart. “Because you’d have the patience for that, not going straight for the throat.”

Envy’s eyes narrowed again, but for some reason they seemed placated, fangs disappearing again. It was impossible to put pattern to their moods, Kimblee had learned that, if nothing else. Assuming he wouldn’t be bitten now, he reached out to brush some of their hair from their forehead. Accepting, Envy rolled their head to bare their neck for him, letting him caress the very thin blue skin there, wrap his hand around so he could hear them purr.

“I have a present for you,” Kimblee continued softly. “I knew you’d forget.”

“Forget what?” Envy replied, eyes slipping closed.

“The date today,” Kimblee said.

“Hmm?”

Kimblee put his thumb on their chin to tilt their head back down, violet eyes opening again, close enough to see the faint shift in colour right around their slit pupils. Pupils that had started to expand. This was good- at the moment, he would rather have them aroused than angry.

“It’s the Promised Day,” Kimblee said, letting himself grin. “Or it was, eighty-five years ago.”

“Oh,” was all he got for that, and Envy looked a little confused, eyes seeming to focus more on his lips than what those lips were saying. Oh, well.

“So I have a present to celebrate that victory,” Kimblee continued. “I’ve been working on it for a while. I made it just for you.”

Feeling satisfied enough with this preamble Kimblee reached at last into his inner jacket pocket, pulling out a red silk kerchief, unfolding it in his hands- and at the first ray of deadly red light that shone through it, Envy’s eyes widened.

“Kimblee,” they said, suddenly taking him by the wrist, almost as if to stop him. Their grip was rather weak- but it wouldn’t be, not for very long.

The Philosopher’s Stone he had made was fat, and it was grotesque, how self-satisfied it appeared sitting in his palm. The light of it was strong enough to overpower the blue from the pool completely. Blood light. Envy’s face was that of a starving wolf being offered raw meat.

“Slowly, now,” Kimblee said with a laugh as they took it from his hand with their teeth. “Hold still, I want to see it.”

For a moment, the red light of the stone glittered on their tongue- their fangs made a faint noise scraping its diamond-hard planes. Beautiful. This tableau was held for only an instant, and then Envy- who had ever been the impatient kind- swallowed the thing whole.

Their head snapped back, the collarbones they had designed shifting under their skin, and red lightning sparked about their body, running down their spine to be set free and dart across the surface of the water. 

“Oh, _Crimson,”_ Envy moaned, head rolling back up so they could look at him- a bit of the red flashed in their eyes too, and Kimblee had mind to tell them they looked like a drug addict- but before he could they blinked, and the sclera of their right eye turned black.

Kimblee backed away thoughtfully, but wasn’t able to save himself entirely from the spray of chlorinated water as Envy’s exploding body displaced it. They tripled in size, sprouting new limbs and a thousand new faces to cry and scream at their misfortune. A familiar nightmare sight- Envy’s tremendous pink tongue reached out towards him, their humongous doglike face stretched out as though intending to swallow him whole, and in the flickering fluorescent light of the pool their skin looked just as gray as it did green. However, this image only lasted a moment- the lightning stopped crackling and the transformation reversed itself, those scaly tons of meat and muscle folding back over themselves, sucked into a much smaller, more compact frame.

On the floor before the bar Envy was kneeling, and they threw their head back to laugh, a well-treasured sound. Kimblee took a sip of his drink, satisfied, and watched with some amusement as Envy stood to stumble over to him, practically glowing with ardour. They were dressed again, in that same form-fitting black silk he had met them in- an automatic design for them, just like the shape of their eyes and the colour of their skin.

“This feels _amazing,”_ they crowed, wrapping their arms about his neck as soon as he was within reach. “You have no _idea…”_

From this distance, Kimblee could see his success even better- Envy’s eyes were practically on fire, and their skin was glowing, their hair healthy and full. All the signs of decay had been vanquished, down to even the little cracks that had formed in the corners of their lips. They looked impossibly immortal now- young and vibrant and full of wicked energy.

They kissed him, and how could he resist?

“Take me out,” Envy hissed when they broke apart, bodies entwined and hearts (though made of stone) pulsing too fast. “Show me what you like best about this city.”

“Will you promise to be good?” Kimblee asked them, and Envy bared their teeth.

“No,” they snapped.

“Perfect.”

And Envy threw their head back and laughed again, and he kissed what was bared of their throat, and knew that he loved them best like this- just as he had fallen for them in the desert a hundred years ago, and would surely continue to fall for a hundred more. Or, hell, a thousand more, a million more- who knew how long the earth had been made to last?

Perhaps they would be the ones to find out.


End file.
